While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese amateur photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. Photo: Bioluminescent phytoplankton washes up on Maldives beach. (Photo by Will Ho)

The battleship USS Iowa fires its 16-inch guns during duty in the Persian Gulf on December 16, 1987. In 1943, the Iowa ferried President Franklin Roosevelt home from the Teheran Conference, where post-WW II leaders divided up the world. The ship fought battles from the South Pacific to Korea and escorted convoys through the Persian Gulf. Forty-seven sailors died atop its deck when an explosion ripped through a gun turret. Now, the new port for the retired USS Iowa just might be the home of California's annual asparagus festival, the gritty agriculture port town of Stockton on the San Joaquin River, about 80 miles inland from San Francisco. (Photo by Eric Risberg/AP Photo)

Guardian of the Mangroves – Overall Winner. Tanya Houppermans, Cuba. A curious American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) swims right up to Tanya, at Gardens of the Queen (Jardines De La Reina), an archipelago off the coast of Cuba. It has been strictly protected since 1996, and is one of the most untouched marine ecosystems in the world. ‍ “The healthy population of American crocodiles is down to the pristine condition of the mangroves and I wanted to capture close ups of this gentle giant in its natural habitat. I hope this image can illustrate that protecting areas like this is so critical”. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans/Mangrove Photographer of the Year)

The clown is on tour at Outlets on June 7, 2020 in Wuhan,Hubei Province,China.Wuhan has seen its urban life gradually get back to normal following encouragement from local city management to open up street-stalls. Since January, China has recorded more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 3200 deaths, mostly in and around the city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, where the outbreak first started. (Photo by Getty Images/Stringer)

Giant panda Ying Ying rests on a rock in its enclosure while a visitor takes a selfie at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, China, 24 September 2020. An An turned 35 in August. Giant pandas in the wild can live up to 20 years on average, while lifespans of those under human care can reach over 30 years. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)

Workers stir hundreds of large ceramic pots as they spend months making a traditional soy sauce on October 14, 2020. Arranged in rows, the containers can hold up to 50 litres of Ban Soy sauce. During the drawn out process the sauce is stirred every two days for two to six months. Ban Yen Nhan village in the Hung Yen Province of Vietnam is famous for its traditional and distinctive method of making the sauce. (Photo by Nguyen Quy/Solent News)

Sete Tamang, 20, avalanche survivor, waits to receive the bodies of his colleagues outside a morgue at Teaching Hospital in Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, October 20, 2014. Nepal was wrapping up rescue operations in its northern mountains Monday, saying all the hikers believed to have been stranded on a trekking route by a series of deadly blizzards are now safe. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

This green-skinned trio were happy to pose for the camera – with one little frog smiling happily for its close up. The three Reinwardt's Flying Frog, commonly known as the black webbed tree frog or the green flying frog, were spotted playing in a tree by photographer Hendy Mp. The 25-year-old who saw the frogs near his home in Sambas, Kalimantan Barat, in Indonesia, said they reminded him of three brothers playing together. (Photo by Hendy Mp/SOLENT News)